Animal pests that attack foliage or crops are a common problem for both the individual homeowner and the large-scale farmer. By way of illustration, rabbits enjoy eating Spiraea bushes in the wintertime when snow covers other potential food. Blackbirds prefer eating ripe cherries from the framer's trees.
Such animals are particularly difficult to treat since they are desirable wildlife when not consuming agronomic crops or foliage. Proper treatment of such wildlife presumes that they be exposed only to relatively non-toxic substances, if possible.
Commercial products such as, for example, methiocarb have been developed to combat the above problems. It would be desirable, however, to develop a new bird and mammal repellant that is more effective than currently-available commercial pest-repellants and less hazardous to the repelled pest and non-target birds and other wildlife.